Our Lady of the Val

Patrona and "Alcaldessa Perpetua" de Alcalá de Henares

In the Vega del Henares, the Virgin of the Val is patron of Alcalá de Henares and even its "Alcaldessa Perpetua"; an image of alabaster linked by tradition to the finding of a farmer and the title of Doctor of his famous University.

Origin and history

The hermitage of Our Lady of the Val was an extramurous sanctuary, on the right bank of the Henares River opposite the hill of the Ecce Homo and the ruins of Alcalá la Vieja, now integrated in the city by urban growth. The Virgin of Val has been the patron of Alcalá since ancient times, with a co-fradia documented in the 14th century, one of the oldest in the municipality. In 1924 she was proclaimed Mayor Perpetua of the city, and tradition also honors her as a Doctor of her University. His guard corresponds to the Enlightenment of Our Lady of the Val, which organizes cults, novias and the annual Romeria between the city and the hermitage.

The tradition places the origin of the cult at 1184, when a farmer, after miraculously saving himself from the waters of the Henares when he entrusted himself to the Virgin, would have found buried an image of the alabaster of the Virgin with the Child. According to another version, the plow of her plow ran into the image, which then disappeared and reappeared next to an elm or on the same path, interpreting itself as the will of the Virgin to remain in that valley, from which the title "of the Val" derives. They are stories of pious legend, collected by local chronicles such as the Annales Complutenses, without coetanea documentation to the alleged finding.

Canonical coronation: not found in the sources.